


Reflection in the Everfree Forest

by Pink_Aesthetic



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Work
Genre: Challenging Racism, Pre-Canon, Racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-01 08:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18332438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_Aesthetic/pseuds/Pink_Aesthetic
Summary: In my creative writing class we had to write a two page prompt: 'Reflections of Nature', I decided to use my original character Bubbles. Bubbles walks along the quiet paths of the Everfree and finds a common ground with them, as she knows just what it feels like to be assumed the worst of.





	Reflection in the Everfree Forest

The trees were almost eerily quiet, rustling with a free wind that that would make any other pegasus shiver. The cavities in trees created growling faces and roaring maws in the darkened shadow of overgrown brambles and branches. Lone clouds floated above, seen just barely through the small gaps in the leaves above, threatening rain unscheduled by any weather service. Magical plants danced along the ground, whispering their dangerous effects with outrageous colors and intricate designs. Bubbles did not know the names of most of them, but the Poison Joke flowers were in full bloom and coated a god portion of the forest floor, their bright blue petals sheened in the small amount of sunlight, yellow stamens fluttering in the breeze. She avoided those like the plague, remembering their magical effect on her when she had first walked through them unknowingly. Not something she would want to repeat. A thin dirt strip was her only path, just wide enough to take her one hoof after the other. She and Zecora were the only two ponies that ever used it, no one else dared enter. 

When she had first moved to Ponyville she had heard the whispers, the stories, the warnings about these woods. About what laid inside of them. The Everfree forest was dangerous, unknown, and wild. So everypony said.

Bubbles knew better though, than to listen to the tales and rumors of other ponies. They spread quickly, like a fire, growing larger and larger with every mouth they jumped to. Tales were spun from small encounters and falsified fear, a sudden snap of a branch became a vicious monster attack and the sighting of a pony with stripes became a daring escape from an evil enchantress hell-bent on cursing whoever trespassed against her. Long story short, there was very little truth in rumors. 

When she heard the tales of the forest she found she had a strong need to confirm them herself. A year ago she had entered the mysterious Everfree forest all alone and then left it again unscathed, much to her new roommates honest surprise. It was undoubtedly eerie and creepy. There were far off noises of monsters, or random rustling, or, worse yet, no sound at all, like the entire forest was holding its breath. The air stunk of timberwolves breath and poisonous plants, both a threat if you were not careful. The breeze blew soft and wild, ruffling your mane just enough to set you on edge and chilled you to the bone when accompanied with the never-ending shadows.

A sharp contrast to the parks and towns of pony civilization, where laughter and idle chatter almost always filled the air and it smelled sugary with every flower and baked good you could think of. The only wind was brought in by the flight of pegasus a little too low to the ground and your coat was warmed by the bright rays of Celestia’s sun. It was bright and colorful, and a blinding charade that had so many cracks and fractures that Bubbles was surprised no other pony saw how fake it really was.

Ponies had to be the most cowardly species to walk the planet, she thought, herself included. They ran and hid at the first sign of change or difference, so used to their daily routines that anything else was a danger to their very way of living. She knew first hand what damage this mentality could do. 

Bubbles was one fourth zebra, a fact she know held with pride but once made her life awful. She remembered over-hearing the whispers of other fouls’ parents on the playgrounds that they should be careful around her as they did not know what she was capable of. She remembered the frightened scream of her kindergarten teacher when her mother walked her to class on the first day, she played it off as being snuck up on, but both Bubbles and her mother knew the true reason. She remembered asking her mother when she was older why they never visited her grandmother or saw any other zebras and her mother replied that it was easier to play pony when you cut out the what you could that made you different. 

It was not until almost all her stripes had faded like fawn spots that she was able to get out of Canterlot and begin her journey on loving herself for once. It was not until she ventured into the Everfree forest that she fully felt that everything rumour and tale about her was wrong. It was not until she met Zecora did she finally have a link to explore their culture and learn their magic. 

Bubbles would admit that she did not have a lot in common with the Everfree forest. She was not wild or dangerous in the slightest like these woods truly could be when they wished. She was kind and courteous and was a general pony-pleaser. However she did have a connection with the Everfree no other pony could claim. She was drawn to it because it went through the same scorn and fear that she had gone through in her youth. She needed to walk through its narrow trails, avoid its treacherous traps and simply spend time within it, because nopony else would. Nothing deserved to be alone, not her, nor Zecora, nor this wonderfully dangerous wood. They all deserved each other, to support one another and be in the company of each other. 

The path she walked ended abruptly ahead of her at the base of a large tree. She spread her wings, giving them a small flutter before flying up to the first level of the tree house she had made within it. She sat, let the breeze rustle her mane and the scent of Poison Joke fill her nose. She listened to the nothingness of the forest holding its breath and gazed into a sea of shadowed trees. There was no other place she felt she could overwhelmingly be herself then right here. By herself, but not alone.


End file.
